Ecological resource potential

The ecological resource potential (ERP) method allows to calculate the amount of one material that can potentially be produced within Earth system boundaries, if no other anthropogenic activity would take place. It indicates the uppermost potential of one resource extracted, processed and disposed after use with a specific set of technologies and a defined probability of violating Earth system boundaries. This method is an adaption of the ecological resource availability (ERA) method, which calculates the amount of a resource that can be produced within an allocated share of the global boundaries, i.e. when considering all other anthropogenic activities. While more realistic, its allocation can be done in multiple ways and based on a variety of different objectives, which requires scenario modelling. The ERP method, in contrary, only requires information on environmental impacts from resource extraction, processing, and final disposal. The customization of the original ERA method comprises: • Omitting all steps for allocating global boundaries to single resources or resource segments. • Changing the calculation procedure so that ERP is calculated for each resource separately.